La guida completa per Agenzie e Brand su come attrarre talenti tramite i riconoscimenti, in questo nuovo numero della rubrica Gold Brief.
Most agencies calculate the value of an accolade by looking at the clients it can attract.
Only a few, however, calculate the equivalent value on the talent side.
Yet the mechanism that makes an award effective in a client’s decision-making process, as we also outlined in the article on why awards matter, also works for a professional looking to build a career.
Although the effect on recruitment is more immediate, it is a point often underestimated among the marketing awards and digital awards an agency pursues. So, in this article from the Gold Brief series, we will analyse the mechanism through which awards attract talent, its economic scale and how to integrate it into a deliberate awards strategy.
Gold Brief is the category of the Bliss blog for those who want to understand how recognition in marketing really works. In this column you will find practical guides to the international awards that matter (creativity, strategy, performance, design, SEO, innovation and much more), with everything you need to enter. Because the perfect brief is not written in a day: if anything, it is built every day.
How Talent Reads an Award
A professional assessing a job offer faces the same problem as a client assessing an agency: information asymmetry.
They, too, cannot verify in advance the real quality of the work they will produce, the internal culture or the calibre of their colleagues. They have to rely on external signals.
Awards are one of the most powerful signals a candidate can read before an interview.
An agency that appears regularly in the archives of Cannes Lions, Ad Age or even Italian awards such as the ADCI Awards communicates, without needing to say so, that it produces work its peers consider excellent. For a creative, a strategist or a media planner weighing up where to invest their career, this signal carries as much weight as the salary offered, or more.
Authority heuristic, halo effect, familiarity built up over time. A candidate who has seen an agency’s name in the archives of the industry’s most relevant festivals is favourably disposed even before the first contact. At that point, the interview can only confirm or refute the expectation.
The Cost of Recruiting Without Awards
According to industry estimates, the cost of recruiting and onboarding a senior marketing professional ranges between 15,000 and 40,000 euros, taking into account internal time, any headhunters and the ramp-up period before full productivity.
An agency without a recognisable presence at industry awards must build the entire appeal of its profile through the interview, the salary and the role description. This is not impossible, but it is structurally more expensive and slower than a process in which the candidate arrives already favourably disposed. Agencies that methodically maintain a presence at international awards receive higher-quality unsolicited applications, reducing their reliance on more expensive recruitment channels.
This return is one of the six described in the article on how to calculate the ROI of an awards strategy, and of the six it has the simplest measurement horizon: just compare the number and quality of unsolicited applications in periods of greater awards visibility with those in periods of lower activity.
Which Awards Carry the Most Weight in Recruitment
Not all awards carry the same weight in a candidate’s decision. The weight depends on the type of professional you want to attract.
For creative profiles, the awards that carry the most weight are those centred on creative quality: the Design Lions and the Creativity Strategy Lions at Cannes, D&AD and, in the Italian market, the ADCI Awards. A copywriter or an art director assesses an agency also, and at times above all, on the creative quality recognised by their peers.
For strategy and account profiles, the awards that carry the most weight are those centred on effectiveness, such as the AME Awards or the Effies. A professional who identifies as a strategist assesses an agency on its ability to deliver business results, not just aesthetically pleasing work.
For digital and performance profiles, what counts are specialist awards such as the European Search Awards or awards in Best Use of AI categories. An SEO professional or a performance marketer looks for signs of technical excellence in their own specific field, not generic creative prestige.
How to Communicate Accolades for Recruitment
An award won only generates employer branding value if it is communicated to the right audience, through the right channel.
Client-facing communication, typically through press releases, case studies on the website and LinkedIn content from the company page, mainly reaches a commercial audience. Recruitment-facing communication requires a different channel: the personal profiles of the team members who worked on the award-winning project, the agency’s careers pages, and content that tells the behind-the-scenes story of the winning work rather than the end result.
An advertising award won and never communicated to the team delivers half the return.
The agencies that extract the most employer branding value from their awards actively involve the team in communicating the win. A personal post by a creative describing their role in a project awarded at Cannes Lions reaches a network of other creatives with an effectiveness that the agency’s official press release cannot replicate.
Talent Is Attracted
Agencies that struggle to find high-calibre professionals often do not have a selection process problem but a problem of advance visibility.
An agency that methodically maintains a presence at industry awards, both international and Italian, builds a profile over time that keeps working even when it is not actively looking for candidates. Talent knows it, rates it highly and, when the right moment comes in their career, counts it among their options before a position is even advertised.
This does not replace a structured recruitment process, of course, but it makes it more efficient, faster and less costly.
It is a return that very few agencies measure, and one worth as much as, and in some cases more than, the direct commercial return of an awards strategy.
New Connections (FAQ)
How do you measure the impact of an award on recruitment?
The simplest method is to compare the number and quality of unsolicited applications in the three months following a significant win or shortlisting with the average of the previous three months. An increase in unsolicited applications, particularly from senior profiles who would not have been reached by a standard job advert, is the most direct signal. It is also worth monitoring whether candidates cite the award as a reason for their interest during the interview.
Do Italian awards matter as much as international ones for recruitment?
For recruitment in the Italian market, often yes, and in some cases national awards carry more weight. A professional assessing an opportunity in Italy is more familiar with the ADCI Awards or the UNA Awards than with the specific criteria of the Cannes Lions. Familiarity with the source of the recognition is part of the mechanism: an award that the candidate recognises and regards as authoritative has a more immediate effect than one that is prestigious but remote from their professional context.
Is it worth involving the team in communicating an award win?
Yes, and it is one of the most underused levers in communicating accolades. A personal post from someone who worked on the award-winning project reaches a professional network that the agency’s corporate press release does not penetrate as effectively. To maximise the employer branding value of an award, team communication should be encouraged and supported with ready-made materials, not left to individuals’ spontaneous initiative.